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Greg Wilson’s Discotheque Archives #16

The sixteenth edition of my ‘Discotheque Archives’ series for DJ Mag is now online, featuring more landmarks in pre-Rave club culture:

WALTER GIBBONS – Brooklyn-born Walter Gibbons was a small and shy figure but highly assertive where music was concerned. Whilst Kool Herc juggled the breaks at his Bronx block parties, Gibbons experimented with a similar technique at Galaxy 21 – he was known as the ‘DJ’s DJ’. Furthermore, along with Tom Moulton, Gibbon’s is revered at the origins of remixing – the first DJ to be let loose with the multitrack.

TOMMY BOY RECORDS – Launched in 1981 by Tom Silverman, Tommy Boy became synonymous with the burgeoning electro sound in New York. Releasing music from Afrika Bambaataa, including the Arthur Baker produced game-changer, ‘Planet Rock’, the label was at the very cusp, releasing The Jonzun Crew, Planet Patrol, G.L.O.B.E & Whiz Kid, as well as the raw cut and paste of hip-hop, pressing Keith LeBlanc’s brilliant collage of Malcolm X sound bites, ‘No Sell Out’, and Double Dee & Steinski’s seminal ‘Lessons’ series.

WHISKY A GO GO – Opened in 1964 at a time when the concept of the discotheque, where recorded music was played in a nightclub setting, was still largely foreign, the Sunset Strip’s Whisky A Go Go not only acted as one of the key incubators in LA’s live band scene, but also became world-renowned for the freestyle dancing it espoused. Given its rich ‘60s legacy, the club would fast become a hallowed LA music institution, remaining open to this day.

GOOD TIMES – Atlantic’s best-selling single, the disco-funk of ‘Good Times’, inspired by the Great Depression standard, ‘Happy Days Are Here Again’ (1929), was Chic’s last chart hit. As it was climbing the chart, Steve Dahl’s ‘Disco Sucks’ campaign did much to harm the genre but the disco sound resonated in the Bronx, where it re-emerged re-recorded on Sugar Hill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’ and later central to the cut-up masterclass ‘The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel’.

Being a DJ

I’m a DJ from Merseyside. I started out in 1975, but stopped for almost 20 years, between 1984 and the end of 2003, at which point I started again.

One night during the period I wasn’t deejaying, turning off my mind, relaxing, and floating downstream I had what might be termed a moment of clarity. Paradoxically, although I was no longer a DJ in the literal sense I suddenly became aware that I’d never actually stopped being a DJ, for even if I was in a room with just one person I couldn’t help but ask them ‘have you heard this?’, and not only ‘heard’, but ‘have you seen this / read this?’, for it goes beyond music. Already taken somewhat aback by this nugget of self-discovery, I realised, in true eureka style, that this all pre-dates my being a DJ and goes back as far as I can remember – I’ve always had an inherent need to share, it’s absolutely central to my nature. This was quite a revelation.

So it’s no wonder that I became a Disc Jockey, for once I fell in love with those circular pieces of magical plastic during my formative years, it wasn’t a matter of choosing this as a path, the path pretty much chose me.

I don’t intend this to be a DJ blog as such, but more a blog by someone who happens to be a DJ – a place where personal emphasis takes precedence over professional, although, as I’ve already explained, the two aspects are, of course, inescapably entwined.